Griffith, Arthur

The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.

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Arthur Griffith, 1872–1922, Irish statesman, founder of Sinn Féin. He joined the nationalist movement as a young man. In 1899 he founded the United Irishman, in which he advocated that Irish members of Parliament withdraw from Westminster and organize their own assembly. His goal was the creation of a dual monarchy of England and Ireland, like that of Austria-Hungary. His ideas found adherents who, in 1905, formed the Sinn Féin. Griffith took no part in the Easter Rebellion of 1916, but he was imprisoned several times (1916–18) by the British. Elected to Parliament in 1918, he joined the other Sinn Féiners in forming Dáil Éireann and was elected its vice president. He led the Irish delegation that negotiated the treaty (1921) establishing the Irish Free State. When Eamon De Valera, president of the Dáil, rejected the treaty, Griffith succeeded to his office. He died suddenly at the beginning of the civil war.

See biographies by P. Colum (1959) and V. E. Glandon (1985); study by C. Younger, A State of Disunion (1972).

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Griffith, Arthur

Griffith, Arthur (1871–1922). A printer from Dublin, Griffith was active in the Celtic Literary Society, the Gaelic League, and the Irish Republican Brotherhood. He spent 1896–9 in South Africa, returning to Ireland to commence vigorous journalism, urging that Ireland could emulate Hungary and acquire substantial autonomy. In 1906 he launched Sinn Fein, preaching abstention from British politics, and was involved in the Howth gun-running in 1914. Twice imprisoned during the First World War, Griffith did not take part in the Easter Rising, but was returned for East Cavan at a by-election in 1918. He was again imprisoned but emerged to lead the Irish delegation at the negotiations in 1921 which resulted in the Irish Free State. He succeeded de Valera as president of the Dáil in January 1922 but died from a stroke seven months later, just as the civil war between pro- and anti-treaty factions was beginning.

J. A. Cannon

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Griffith, Arthur

Griffith, Arthur (1872–1922) Irish statesman, president of the Irish Free State (1922). From 1899 he edited the republican newspaper, United Irishman. In 1905, Griffith founded Sinn Féin. He took no part in the Easter Rising (1916), but the British imprisoned him (1916–18). In 1919, he became vice president of the unofficial Irish parliament, the Dáil Éireann. Griffith and Michael Collins were the chief negotiators of the Anglo-Irish Treaty (1921), which created the Irish Free State and de facto acceptance of partition. Eamon De Valera rejected the settlement and Griffith became president.

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